Heart's Desire Ch 6

Chapter 6

The next morning when I arrived at Eric’s door I could hear voices, so I was prepared to wait by the door again as I had the day before; when I realized it was the television I was hearing this time. I walked quietly through the open door and from my vantage point I could see the tv before Eric could see me enter the room. It was taking all my strength not to laugh out loud at his choice of programming.

“Eric, what the hell?”

I think I startled him with my out burst because of his surprised expression, but quickly it was replaced by a huge grin. It took him just a second to realize I was talking about the show on the tube.

“The View’? I think we may need to have a discussion about the full extent of your injuries. Obviously there has been some brain damage that was not previously apparent to me.”

“Oh God, I’m so glad to see you. I have been in HELL!”

“Well, did you think of changing the channel?”

Eric sheepishly pointed to the bedside table that had been pushed up against the back wall and lying on top beside the water pitcher was the remote to the television.

“It’s not bad enough that they come in here acting like some NASCAR pit crew while changing my fuckin’ bed linens; but then they have to engage in some sadistic form of “keep away” with my damn TV remote therefore I am forced to endure the inane cackling of these hens for the last 28 minutes! Will you please turn that shit off?”

I sat my things down on the chair and grabbed the remote from the table to turn off the tv and by now was giggling out loud.

“Well Mr. Northman, you’ve got quite the mouth on you this morning don’t cha?”

“Oh I’m sorry Sookie; I didn’t mean to offend you. I guess I’ve gotten comfortable with your company and I kind of forgot my manners. Please forgive me.”

“Relax Northman. Your ranting doesn’t bother me. This is your room you should be able to speak freely.”

He gave me a small smile.

“So what’s that you brought with you?”

“Well, I have homemade soup for our lunch today and grilled chicken Caesar salad for dinner this evening.”

“You’re going to be here for dinner too?” There was no denying the excitement in his question.

“Well, I don’t have to be. I could just leave the food and be on my way.”

OK, I know it was a blatant attempt at attention on my part, but I couldn’t help myself. I was relatively comfortable with our situation, but I still wanted to hear that he wanted me to be there.

“No! I mean…no of course I want you to stay.” I hoped my face wasn’t betraying the huge grin I was feeling on the inside when he answered a little quicker and louder than he had obviously intended.

“Are you’re sure you don’t have other plans?”

“Well, I had planned on doing a little jogging this evening, but I don’t think I’m going to be up to it, so we may as well just hang out here.”

We both snickered at his comment. I grabbed the items from my bags that needed to go in the refrigerator and went down the hall to the nurses’ lounge to put them away. Amelia was at the counter when I was returning to Eric’s room.

“Hey roomie, I didn’t remember seeing you on the schedule for today.”

“Oh, I’m not. I’m just here visiting Eric, but since I’m here, you can mark his meals off the ‘to do’ list for today. I’ll take care him.”

“I just bet you will.” She said grinning in a faint whisper that from where we were standing, only I could hear.

“Now, just what is that supposed to mean?” I asked in an equally quiet whisper.

“Nothing Sookie, I’m just giving you a hard time. But please be careful. Mr. Northman is not a stray puppy. He is going to get better and he is going to leave here. I don’t want to see you get hurt.”

“Amelia, I don’t know what you are talking about. I am just being a friend to someone who needs a friend.” I knew even while I was saying it that it wasn’t completely the truth. I was being a friend, but I needed it as much or more than he did. What does that even mean? I shook those thoughts out of my head and returned to Eric’s room.

“Did you get lost?” He asked when I returned to the room.

“No, smartass. I ran in to a friend down the hall and stopped to talk for a minute. Did you miss me that bad in that short of time?” I joked.

“Yes.”

The look on his face revealed he had said the word out loud that he had intended to keep inside and he tried quickly to recover.

“I’m ready to get started on my exercises so I can get better and get the hell out of here. That is if you are up to helping me with them again today?” I tried not to be offended by his need to “get the hell out of here”; I knew it wasn’t me he wanted to get away from, not anymore at least but rather the hospital and the nightmare he was living through right now.

“Well, by all means then let’s get started so we can get you out of here.” I quipped a little more acerbic than was really necessary.

“Sookie, you know I didn’t mean it like that.” He said obviously trying to make me feel better.

“I know Eric but just remember…I’m part of here.”

“I couldn’t forget that Sookie. You are the very best part of here.” Well damn!

I walked over to the sink to wash my hands and try to regain my composure. I could see Eric’s reflection in the mirror over the sink and he seemed to be trying to get a grip on himself as well.

“So how was your night last night? Did you sleep ok after all that activity yesterday?”

“Actually, I slept better last night than I have since coming out of the coma. I was expecting to be sore but it was really ok. I think the massage helped more than anything, it seemed to really relax my muscles so I never had any pain last night.” That shit eatin’ grin was back.

“Northman are you trying to flatter me into giving you another rub down today?” Please, please say I get to touch those magnificent shoulders again!

“Definitely. How am I doing?” Fandamntastic!

“Not bad. We’ll see how you do today and if you are really good then MAYBE I’ll give you another massage.”

“Yes ma’am!” ma’am? I could get used to this.

We started going through his workout exactly has we had done the day before. I was amazed at how much stronger he was already compared to the day before.

“Eric, have you already been exercising this morning?”

“Yeah, a physical therapist was in here first thing this morning for a session. Why?”

“No reason, I’m just surprised at how much stronger you are after just one day.”

Now I had done it. I could see his chest swell and another big grin spread across his face.

“Impressed?”

“Very. Now stop being smug and get back to work. Ass.”

He laughed and continued exercising. After a few minutes Eric spoke up again.

“Can I ask you a question?”

“Sure. Shoot.”

“How old are you?”

“25. Why?”

“Just curious”

“You?”

“28”

“Can I ask you another question?”

“Eric, you don’t have to preface each question with “can I ask you a question”. If you want to ask me something, ask.”

“Alright then, what do you do? I mean besides volunteer at the hospital, what do you do for a living?”

“Well I only recently started volunteering at the hospital, the rest of the time I am a waitress at a bar and grill on the out skirts of town?”

“A waitress?” He seemed taken aback by my answer to his question. Although I make a good living and I am very good at what I do, I’ve never been really proud of being a waitress. But I certainly was not ashamed of it and I could feel my cheeks getting hot with irritation at his response.

“Yes, a waitress! Is there a problem with that?”

“No, I’m just surprised that’s all. It’s just not what I would have pegged you as that’s all?” Well what the hell does that mean?

“Care to explain exactly what you mean by that Northman?”

“Calm down Sookie. I meant no offense seriously; I’m just surprised that someone with your obvious intelligence is a waitress that’s all. It was not intended as an insult. Honestly.”

I began to calm down a little. “Well it’s not like I grew up aspiring to be a waitress. I started out part time in high school to earn spending money and money for college. When my gran got sick, I needed to work more to help with the medical bills and then to pay for her funeral when she passed.” I could feel my eyes beginning to well up.

“Sookie, I’m so sorry. Please don’t cry. I didn’t mean to make you upset. Please stop crying.”

I couldn’t help but get a little tickled by his reaction to my tears. He seemed genuinely at a loss as to how to handle a crying female. I was feeling a little embarrassed by my show of emotion and was desperately trying to find a way to salvage some dignity.

“So, what do you do for a living?” I asked trying to turn his attention on to something else and off of me. He paused for several moments before responding.

“Let’s just say real estate.” ‘let’s just say????

“What does “let’s just say real estate” mean? Are you in real estate or not?”

“Well it’s complicated.”

“Oh, I see…and the little waitress from Bon Temps could possible understand the big workings of Shreveport real estate, huh?”

“Sookie, stop! I didn’t mean anything like that and you know it. I just don’t like talking about myself. I was just trying to get to know you better that’s all.”

“What about me? Don’t I get to try to get to know you better? Why do I have to answer all the questions and you don’t? How one sided does that make our relationship?” Shit! Did I just say ‘relationship’? Just shoot me now.

“I know you’re right Sookie. I’ve just had a lot of bad things happen, some recently and a lot of the wounds are still too fresh to want to talk about. I hope you understand.”

“Eric I know you have been hurt. I’ve lived through a few tragedies in my life as well, but I didn’t begin to heal from those wounds until I was able to face them. I want to help you, but I can’t do that if you don’t open up to me.”

Eric turned his head and was staring out the window like he had done those first days after we met. I could see the wall that I had thought I had torn down was now back.

I stayed for the remainder of the afternoon; we ate and went through his exercise routine with hardly a word spoken. A part of me felt like I might be punishing him with my silence because he was not willing to open up to me, but the self preservation side of me needed to keep this shield up for now. If he wanted more information about me, he was going to have to be willing to share information about himself.

After dinner, I gathered up my containers and packed the empties in to my bags. I made sure Eric’s remote and cup of water was within his reach by the bed on the night side table. I patted him on the hand.

“I won’t be able to come by tomorrow, I’m working a double but I’ll see you the day after.”

And without a word he took his thumb and moved it to gently hold my hand to his.

TBC